About uS…
Colin Ruel is a self-taught artist from the fishing village of Menemsha on the island of Martha's Vineyard. He can trace his family’s Island roots back to the settling of the island. Nettie Kent Ruel is a jeweler and the daughter of the painter Doug Kent and Lesley Eaton. Nettie was born and raised in West Tisbury. Nettie and Colin met on the Island in 2008 and married in Menemsha in 2014. They have two boys Razmus and Wyld.
Colin is an avid fisherman and lover of the sea and natural world and his work reflects this. His work has evolved over the years from concert posters to geometric sigils, flowing shapes and color gradients to his current ethereal landscapes with stark narratives and aurastic portraits. He uses animals, people and objects as totems and symbols set amidst flowing loose color to carry the narrative in his vignette like paintings, Also prevalent in his work is his relationship to his island forbearers in particular his grandfather commercial fisherman Captain James D. Morgan who was a notable folk artist featured prevelantly in the Martha’s Vineyard Museum and whose exploits and stories helped form a kind of personal mythology for Colin.
Born and raised on the island of Martha’s Vineyard, Nettie Kent’s playground was the beach. Raised by a painter and a librarian, Kent’s bohemian upbringing nurtured her creative spirit and abilities, she could hold a paint brush before she could talk, swim before she could walk. Her free spirit eventually brought her to Hampshire College where she earned a degree in Fine Arts.During college Nettie traveled to Mexico to study mural painting and pottery, and Italy to learn fresco painting techniques.
Nettie made the move to New York City after graduation in 2002 to pursue her love of art. After 6 years working various freelance public art jobs and teaching art in schools Nettie came home to the Island to recharge and access her new found love of jewelry making. While working as a painter Nettie found herself moving beyond the two dimensional drawn towards an interest in metal work and sculpture. Untrained in metal smithing she sought out apprenticeships with leading jewelers in New York, and a love for handcrafted objects with stories to tell along with some self described ‘trial and error’ all combined in a perfect storm to inspire Nettie to start her own line in 2010 when she and Colin moved to Brooklyn together.
Colin and Nettie left the island and moved to Brooklyn in 2010 to pursue their art.
Colin found work as an artist assistant for the artist Holton Rower and on restoring some of Rowers grandfather, Alexander Calder’s work. He then worked as an art fabricated and restorer at alchemy paintworks, working on restoring and fabricating the sculptures of artists like Sol LeWitt, Anish Kapoor, Urs Fischer, Dan Colen and Takashi Murakami.
Nettie Kent has earned a cult following and loyal clientele that appreciates her organic forms, unique designs and her ethical approach to jewelry making that emphasizes sustainable design and sourcing recycled materials.
Nettie works with abandon - sketches give way to carving where she “just lets it happen” finding the piece as it unfolds itself from the wax she carves. Working texture into her designs, Kent says, “the process brings me back to my roots as a painter.”
Nettie continues to be inspired by her years in a Brooklyn as well as her year round life on Martha’s Vineyard. From lapis and gold necklaces to silver and brass cuffs, her beautiful inspired pieces seamlessly juxtaposes the two world she inhabits, the urban and the seashore.
Nettie and Colin returned to the island full time in 2016 to have and raise their first son Razmus and to be back amongst family and nature. Colin showed at The Field Gallery and Granary gallery for 6 years until 2019 when they took over what had been his Great Grandfather Clarence's garage for his Model-A ford. Later in the 1970s it was taken over by Colins Grandmother Roberta Morgan as The Harbor Craft Shop. Roberta sold her crafts dresses and beach plum Jelly along with the her husbands intricately carved weathervanes and the collaborative paintings that James would draw and Roberta would paint. Roberta decided to retire from the shop in 2019 at 90. Colin and Nettie decided to turn it into The Ruel Gallery featuring Colins paintings Netties jewelry and Robertas beach plum jelly Roberta stops by most days and sits on the porch to chat.